PROVIDENCE, R.I. — Seton Hall finally decided it had had enough of Bobby Gonzalez.

Enough of his players being arrested.

Enough of his abusive behavior toward administrators, officials, players, opposing coaches and the media.

Enough of the embarrassment and dishonor he brought to the Seton Hall program.

Enough was enough.

Read the full column here.

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**Rutgers sticking with Fred Hill.

**Seton Hall recruits up in the air.

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…And the hits just keep on coming for Seton Hall. Here’s the press release from the Essex County Prosecutor’s Office on Robert “Stix” Mitchell, who was booted from the team on Sunday, two days before the NIT.

On March 17, 2010 Acting Prosecutor Robert Laurino and South Police Chief James Chelel jointly announced the arrest of Robert Mitchell, 23, of Brooklyn, New York, a Seton University student and member of the basketball team.

Mitchell allegedly entered a residence located on Irvington Avenue in South Orange on Monday, March 15, 2010 forcing occupants to move from various rooms into a common area where they forced to turn over their cash and personal items at gunpoint. There were eight occupants in the residences at the time. Read more…

**Hit the Video Player at right for my phone interview with SNY on Gonzalez’s firing***

PROVIDENCE, R.I. – One immediate question facing the Seton Hall basketball program in the wake of Wednesday’s firing of head coach Bobby Gonzalez is, What becomes of the program’s recruits?

The Pirates have three recruits in the Class of 2010, yet only one has signed a National Letter of Intent.

Fuquan Edwin, a 6-foot-5 senior wing from Paterson (N.J.) Catholic who signed with Seton Hall last November, said he is leaning toward staying with the Pirates.

“I’m going to wait and sit down with my family and have a big discussion,” Edwin said Wednesday by phone. Read more…

One New Jersey Big East coach lost his job, and the other managed to hold on to his.

On the same day that Rutgers AD Tim Pernetti endorsed Fred Hill as the Rutgers basketball coach going forward, Seton Hall fired Bobby Gonzalez.

“Performance and success are not measured solely by wins and losses, but also in the conduct of those associated with the program,” Pat Hobbs, Dean of the Seton Hall Law School, said in a statement.  “We have expectations as to how our coaches and players will conduct themselves, and they are expected to treat everyone they interact with, whether officials, the press or our students, with the utmost respect, maturity and professionalism. Those core expectations must be met.”

University President Monsignor Robert Sheeran added: “It is essential that all University leaders embody the ideals that make us all so proud of Seton Hall.”

Seton Hall is holding a 2 p.m. conference call to announce the decision.

The decision to remove Gonzalez after his fourth season came shortly after the team’s embarrassing loss Tuesday night to Texas Tech in the NIT and was the result of a pattern of off-the-court issues associated with the team. Read more…

NEWARK, N.J. -- Rutgers Athletic Director Tim Pernetti and St. John’s Athletic Director Chris Monasch might want to pick up the phone and give Bob Knight a courtesy call.

Pat Knight, Bob’s son and head coach at Texas Tech, said his father would consider coaching again and interested schools should give him a ring.

“If I’m St. John’s or Rutgers, to me, you gotta be an idiot … if you’re an AD or president, it doesn’t hurt to call,” Knight told SNY.tv exclusively after his Red Raiders hammered Seton Hall, 87-69, in a first-round NIT game at the Prudential Center.

Read the story exclusively at SNY.tv.

**And read about Seton Hall’s bizarre season-ending NIT loss to Texas Tech here. Herb Pope was ejected for punching a Texas Tech player in his, shall we say, manly regions.

“Man, I never got someone even knee me that hard in a practice by accident. He just took a swing,” said Darko Cohadarevic.

**Elsewhere in the NIT, senior guard Jerome Dyson scored 13 of his 18 points in the second half as Jim Calhoun’s current team, UConn survived his old outfit, Northeastern, 59-57, in Storrs.

Doron Lamb will join Josh Selby in announcing during the Jordan Brand Classic April 17 in New York City.

“Yes. At the Jordan Brand Classic,” Calvin Lamb, Doron’s father, told TheShiver.com. “We were thinking about doing it there anyway, and then they approached us so it worked out.”

Selby, a 6-3 guard out of Baltimore (Md.) Lake Clifton, previously said he would make his announcement then, too.

Selby is mulling Kansas, Kentucky, UConn and Arizona.

The 6-4 Lamb, a Queens native who plays at Oak Hill (Va.) Academy, is considering West Virginia, Arizona, Kansas, Kentucky an UConn.

“It doesn’t really matter if it’s close to home. I just want to go somewhere that it fits me and fits my family and it’s the best decision for me. That’s where I’ll go,” Lamb told me last month. Read more…

Seton Hall-bound Fuquan Edwin and St. John’s-bound Ronald Roberts headline the roster for the North All-Stars in the NJSIAA North-South All-Star Game this Sunday at the Ritacco Center. Here it is:

After losing to Notre Dame in the second round of the Big East tournament last Wednesday, Seton Hall guard Jeremy Hazell confessed that the Pirates’ chances of making the NCAA tournament were dim.

“Our destiny going to postseason and the NCAA tournament is in other people’s hands,” Hazell said in the Seton Hall locker room.

Destiny has taken the Pirates (19-12) to the NIT, where they will host Texas Tech (17-15) in a first-round game at the Prudential Center on Tuesday night (9 p.m.).

Read the full story here.

(Photo courtesy Daily News)

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** Syracuse’s Arinze Onauku out for first weekend.

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By ALEX KLINE & ADAM ZAGORIA

Chris Hill, a 6-foot-8, 210-pound shooting guard from Creedmoore (N.C.) Christian Faith Academy, is receiving interest from Memphis, Nebraska, USC and Kansas State, according to Christian Faith head coach Ro Russell.

Hill is a skilled forward but must sort out his academic situation before he can become qualified.

“Right now, he’s 6-7, 6-8. He can really shoot it. He can play the 3 or the 4. He’s a really skilled shooting combo forward,” Russell said. “He reminds me of Lazar Hayward of  Marquette.

“But he still has to get a lot of stuff done academically. Come May is when we’ll have a better picture of where his whole recruitment situation is.” Read more…

Syracuse big man Arinze Onuaku will likely miss the first two rounds of the NCAA tournament, Orange coach Jim Boeheim told ESPN Monday.

“He’s still hurt and I don’t know if he’ll play this weekend,” Boeheim said. “We’re hopeful he might be able to play Sunday, but that’s a long-shot. We’re really kind of focusing, if we can play well, that he might be able to play in the second weekend. But that’s what we’re looking at right now.”

Syracuse is the fourth overall seed and No. 1 in the West. The Orange (28-4) will face Vermont (25-9) on Friday in Buffalo. Read more…

Just a few days after Robert “Stix” Mitchell criticized Seton Hall head coach Bobby Gonzalez for his substitution patterns, he was removed from the school’s basketball team.

“I am very appreciative of Robert’s contributions to our program these last two years,” Gonzalez said in a statement Sunday.  “We have accomplished much during his time here and I truly wish him the best of luck in his future endeavors.”

In a story written in The Bergen Record after Wednesday’s Big East tournament loss to Notre Dame Mitchell criticized Gonzalez for his substitution patterns and in-game strategy. Read more…

West Virginia coach Bob Huggins is fond of telling a story about his hometown of Midvale, Ohio, which features, “500 people, two stoplights and nine bars.”

As a young man, Huggins once got into a truck with a man from his hometown, noticed the vehicle had no rear-view mirror and asked him about it.

“I don’t back up,” the man told Huggins. “We’re going forward, son.”

West Virginia, the newly minted Big East tournament champion, and seven other Big East teams are going forward into the NCAA tournament after the bracket was announced on Selection Sunday.

Read the full story here.

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Norm Roberts is still the head men’s basketball coach at St. John’s University and could be through at least April 1, the date of the NIT championship game at Madison Square Garden.

St. John’s (17-15) on Sunday night was invited to the NIT as a No. 6 seed and will open play Wednesday against No. 3 Memphis (23-9) at the FedEx Forum (ESPN2, 9 p.m.).

Five Big East teams are in the NIT — St. John’s, Seton Hall, UConn, Cincinnati and South Florida — and have a chance to reach the event’s Final Four at the Garden March 30. Eight more Big East teams were earlier selected to the NCAA tournament, giving the league 13 of its 16 teams postseason opportunities.

Read the full story here.

**Rejected by NCAA, Gonzo accepts NIT bid. Read the story here.

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